If a Waffen-SS officer temporarily takes command of another Waffen-SS unit, as long as the rank is appropriate, it is reasonable. But Logan belongs to the Luftwaffe's parachute unit, and the gulf between the Luftwaffe and the Waffen-SS is not trivial.
Logan sensed the other's hesitation. "Is there a problem? General Dietrich (he's been the deputy commander of the SS since 1934, equivalent to an SS General) recently entrusted your anti-aircraft unit to my command temporarily. Now the situation is critical, and we must act immediately!"
"But..." Marco Rost seemed to want to argue.
"What's the problem? I'll take full responsibility!" Logan issued his first order without hesitation. "Order all units to cease firing until I command otherwise!"
After a moment of hesitation, Marco Rost nodded to the sergeant beside him, who then relayed the order to the units on the front line.
"Good! Can we launch illumination rounds towards the enemy positions?" Logan asked without hesitation.
"Of course, with mortars, effective range is 400 to 600 meters!" the sergeant replied.
"Fire one!" Logan commanded without hesitation.
The Waffen-SS officer faithfully executed the order.
Next, Logan approached the observation port and looked out. While waiting for the illumination rounds, he asked, "What's your name?"
"Karl Schopf, sir!"
"Bavarian?"
"No, Hessian, specifically from Wiesbaden!"
"Ah, alright! Karl, can you help me gather information on how many troops and heavy weapons are still on the positions?" Logan asked kindly yet assertively.
"Sure!" The Waffen-SS officer immediately turned to his obedient soldier. "Hans, follow the orders of this officer and gather information on the number of troops and weapons on the positions as soon as possible!"
This soldier, named Hans just like Logan, promptly obeyed the order. The gunfire from the positions gradually diminished as those who couldn't receive orders due to telephone line failures fell silent under the relentless British bombardment.
Marco Rost stood aside, watching Logan wield his new command baton, neither interfering nor intending to help.
After an anxious wait, the wilderness ahead was finally illuminated by airborne illumination rounds!
As Logan expected, British infantry did not appear within the machine gun range. Instead, they could see more than ten British machine gun teams using water-cooled heavy machine guns - they were the bait for this attack, effectively suppressing the German machine gun positions with their slightly better range compared to German light machine guns. On some hills further back, one could faintly discern British light infantry guns, the true "culprit" destroying German machine gun fire points. Next to them, a large number of infantry were already prepared to attack!
"Well, these bastards! Let's give them a taste of their own medicine!"
Logan cursed bluntly, but the British commander seemed to have noticed the recent changes as well. Under the cover of artillery and heavy machine guns, infantry with rifles fixed bayonets began to advance!
"Lorentz, check how many men are facing us?" Logan handed the binoculars to Stefenberg and calmly considered the situation. Dealing with an attacking force composed purely of infantry didn't seem difficult with sufficient machine guns and ammunition, but after the British "bait" tactics earlier, the machine gun teams on the positions must have suffered losses. How should they fight this battle?
Staying in the bunker wouldn't yield answers. Logan walked into the trench. Nearby Waffen-SS soldiers were almost one per meter, primarily armed with Mauser 98k rifles, and the number of MP38 submachine guns didn't seem exceptionally high - after all, in trench warfare, the former had a considerable advantage in range and accuracy.
"Hey, buddy, how many bullets do you have left?" Logan asked the nearest soldier.
"Only used a few! Sir! How many do you need?" The young Waffen-SS soldier replied.
Ignoring the question, Logan said, "Alright, stay concealed and fire on command!"
Not far away, a Waffen-SS soldier picked up an MG34 (what a great find on the battlefield!), ready to fire, but was immediately stopped by Logan: "Hey, don't want to live? Wait for my command to fire!"
"But, sir, they're within range!" The soldier pointed ahead, where, illuminated by the illumination rounds, British infantry ran forward, the vanguard line already past their heavy machine gun positions.
"Fire on command!" Logan repeated the order, but in another trench farther away, another German machine gun team couldn't hold back and started shooting. Without much thought, their fate was soon to receive a "violent grenade" and a few "invincible darts" offered by the opponents. If lucky, they might leave a whole corpse behind; if not, they would likely become one with the earth!
"Lieutenant!" Stefanberg shouted from the bunker entrance.
Logan rushed back. "Yes?"
"The British have deployed roughly a battalion of infantry, and the good news is they haven't deployed tanks on this side!" the lieutenant reported his observation just now.
"But their suppressing fire is precise and fierce!" Logan added to his analysis.
"Yes, if we don't find a way to deal with those heavy machine guns and infantry guns, it'll be hard to resist their assault!" Stefanberg said anxiously.
"Not necessarily!" Waffen-SS Lieutenant Karl Schopf interjected. "About 500 to 700 meters directly ahead is our minefield, with a total of 88 anti-tank mines and regular mines, enough to give these guys a hard time!"
"88? What a lucky number!" Logan thought. Assuming each mine kills ten infantry, this minefield is indeed enough to withstand the British infantry assault. But how many mines will actually be effective?
His intuition told him that such a small minefield might not be reliable!
"Lorentz, Gérard, bring the armored vehicles nearby onto the positions! Mark, Nick, Lenzin, go to the town and find a colonel or other commanders, the key is to get the tanks to come and support us!" Logan quickly gave orders to his reliable subordinates.
Just a while after the paratroopers left, the SS sergeant responsible for watching the observation port shouted, "Look, those cunning guys! They've bypassed the minefield!"
Logan took a look and sure enough, the attacking British infantry seemed to have X-ray vision, avoiding the open ground in front and flanking from both sides. In the darkness, you couldn't see Karl Schopf's expression, but you could tell from his trembling voice how disappointed he was:
"Unbelievable, unbelievable! Have they already determined the location of the minefield? Ah! They didn't accidentally step on the mines before, they did it on purpose..."
"It seems the enemy has done a lot while we've been fighting east and west and under heavy shelling!" Logan remained quite calm. He even felt more and more that he had an innate talent to be an excellent battlefield commander!
"Ha, Lieutenant Logan, I finally found you! That's great!" the voice came at an inappropriate time to Logan's ears.
"I say, kid, this isn't a place for you to practice interviews! Bullets don't discriminate, whether you're a senior journalist or an Imperial hero, one shot and you're done!"
Logan said quite rudely. The bespectacled man paused for a moment, then quickly said, "Sorry, Lieutenant, I didn't mean to cause you trouble. It's just... I'm really curious about what kind of person leads a group of dozens of paratroopers to take down a bunch of high-ranking British and French officers!"
"Well, you're looking at him!" Logan replied, still unkindly. "And just so you know, I'm not leading dozens of paratroopers, but a total of twenty, including myself! Right now, there are only eleven of us alive, with five of them lying in hospital beds. Maybe after this battle, the only ones who might make it back to Germany..."
As the words hung in the air, Logan swallowed them back. Whether they lived or died, he'd deal with it after finishing this fight!